MemberThread Starter

A Japanese bidder won one of my auctions for an antique (~$700) I was selling. Despite having stated SPECIFICALLY in my auction (AT LEAST twice!) that I will not accept international money orders, that all international bidders MUST have Paypal, this bozo sends a Japanese money order!!!! ARGH!!! So I take it to my bank, they charge me an extra $20 to process it and there is a 3 week hold.

I am already extremely frustrated bc I had to go out of my way for this money order when I do all my shipping on Paypal and electronically, but this Japanese bozo emails me repeatedly in nonsensical English words, things like SHIP THIS PRODUCT IMMEDIATELY. WHAT OTHER ITEM? SHIP GOODS CONTIGENT NO OTHER ITEMS POLICY ON eBay FEEDBACK SHIN!

WTF!!?? Is this a bad joke...I cannot understand what this person is saying and they can't understand what I am saying, I think he/she thinks right now that I am sending out other items? and they are getting irate. They have 0 feedback, I dont even know what to do...I don't even care about my feedback at this point even if they give me a neg because I am just so frustrated and flabergasted that these kinds of people exist.

WHY WOULD YOU BID ON US eBay IF YOU DONT FREAKING SPEAK ENGLISH. YOU DONT SEE ME BIDDING ON GERMAN eBay BECAUSE I DONT SPEAK FREAKING GERMAN.

Member

A Japanese bidder won one of my auctions for an antique (~$700) I was selling. Despite having stated SPECIFICALLY in my auction (AT LEAST twice!) that I will not accept international money orders, that all international bidders MUST have Paypal, this bozo sends a Japanese money order!!!! ARGH!!! So I take it to my bank, they charge me an extra $20 to process it and there is a 3 week hold.

I am already extremely frustrated bc I had to go out of my way for this money order when I do all my shipping on Paypal and electronically, but this Japanese bozo emails me repeatedly in nonsensical English words, things like SHIP THIS PRODUCT IMMEDIATELY. WHAT OTHER ITEM? SHIP GOODS CONTIGENT NO OTHER ITEMS POLICY ON EBAY FEEDBACK SHIN!

WTF!!?? Is this a bad joke...I cannot understand what this person is saying and they can't understand what I am saying, I think he/she thinks right now that I am sending out other items? and they are getting irate. They have 0 feedback, I dont even know what to do...I don't even care about my feedback at this point even if they give me a neg because I am just so frustrated and flabergasted that these kinds of people exist.

WHY WOULD YOU BID ON US EBAY IF YOU DONT FREAKING SPEAK ENGLISH. YOU DONT SEE ME BIDDING ON GERMAN EBAY BECAUSE I DONT SPEAK FREAKING GERMAN.

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I understand your frustration, I really do. Even so, I would take it easy on how you express yourself in regard to this matter. "Japanese Bozo" is a little unnecessary, and as he/she is Japanese, it can pretty much be assumed they don't speak English as their first language, and thus are not going to be as articulate in English as say you or me.

Member

- I'm not defending Vernissima's language, but this Japanese guy's/lady's words do sound a tad arrogant and menacing to me. Even with very poor english you can use a dictionary...

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If he's Japanese, I would have my doubts. Firstly, there are many forms of the language: plain form for talking with friends and close people, polite form for talking to other people you don't really know, and then respect form for your boss or superior. I think many Japanese don't realise that we don't have different forms of language, that we actually add 'please' and that sort of thing to make things sound polite. He might assume that the language we use all the time is polite form, because that is most commonly used in Japanese speech amongst adults who don't know each other well.

In case the form thing didn't make sense:
ie ni iru - I am at home (plain)
ie ni imasu - I am at home (polite)
ie ni irrashaimasu - I am at home (respect). That one may be wrong.

Though, I have to say, I don't have a clue what he's talking about either. But having learnt English as a second language, I can really feel for him. (Sorry I keep assuming it's a him!)

Member

Personally I agree with the OP. If you cannot understand English properly, why bid? It would annoy me too. I wouldn't bid on an item in a language I do not understand either.

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Just for the record... I think I should say that I agree that you shouldn't bid if you can't speak the language... I learnt that the hard way (sorry, nice french lady with awesome shoes for sale!). But this post just sounded like an attack on the Japanese, and i'm half Japanese. I just can't sit back and not defend this guy. Plus, unfortunately the OP had already called another person an 'international f**k' on another post, and so far this buyer hasn't really done anything bad as such (stupid definitely, but maybe he has good intentions, he's paying and all we can do is wait right now). I just can't side with the seller if she'd say something like that. I'd completely disregard the email because once I used to write English like that too and I certainly didn't mean for it to sound arrogant nor impolite. I just didn't know how to get my message across. English is very hard!

I'm sorry... I know my reasons for defending this buyer aren't very good... but I get very worked up over misunderstandings. I just think people are too quick to judge without really understanding the other side sometimes.

But the only thing is i'm not sure if ?? (to "pay") is the right word to use here...i don't know how to say "to clear" in the sense of to "go through". As it is, it sounds like it could be saying "It will take about a month to pay the money order"..don't know if this is the right way to say..

And yeah, someone correct me if I screwed up the Japanese translation. i took 3 years of the language and lived in Japan for a bit but the grammar was never my strong point.

over the moon

If he's Japanese, I would have my doubts. Firstly, there are many forms of the language: plain form for talking with friends and close people, polite form for talking to other people you don't really know, and then respect form for your boss or superior. I think many Japanese don't realise that we don't have different forms of language, that we actually add 'please' and that sort of thing to make things sound polite. He might assume that the language we use all the time is polite form, because that is most commonly used in Japanese speech amongst adults who don't know each other well.

In case the form thing didn't make sense:
ie ni iru - I am at home (plain)
ie ni imasu - I am at home (polite)
ie ni irrashaimasu - I am at home (respect). That one may be wrong.

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Actually, to say politely that you are at home i'd believe you would say "ie ni orimasu" , which is the humble form of "i at home". " ie ni irrashaimasu" can only refer to another person (never for yourself) because it is the honorific form. so for example to say that a teacher is at home you could say "ie ni irrashaimasu".

Though, I have to say, I don't have a clue what he's talking about either. But having learnt English as a second language, I can really feel for him. (Sorry I keep assuming it's a him!)

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I know, technically English is my 2nd language as well, and I understand how horrible it is for people to make rude comments when you're just trying to speak the language.

And yeah, i should have said this before, but there was absolutely no need for OP to use such rude language IMO. It really gives a bad impression. I hope not all foreigners think all Americans are this rude.

over the moon

- I'm not defending Vernissima's language, but this Japanese guy's/lady's words do sound a tad arrogant and menacing to me. Even with very poor english you can use a dictionary...

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It's not as easy as you think, trust me.

To illustrate, how BADLY many dictionaries can translate words, my mom & dad once were trying to test the new Google Spanish-> English translator to see how well it worked. So my dad input "papa ama a mama" or something which basically means "daddy loves mommy". Well, guess what Google translator returned with? "the Pope loves breast". LOL!!! Basically, since the accent marks weren't in there, "papa" could be translated as Pope, and mama was translated as "breast". LOL. So yeah translators aren't foul-proof. Using one requires some basic command of the language, you basically can only use it too look up vocab words.

fop

^ LOL that was cute! (Makes sense though, papa - ama - mama = Pope - love - breast, in a kind of kitchen-Latin...) Translator programs are totally hilarious (and useless), but what I referred to was a humble old print-on-paper dictionary.
What I meant was that the guy could possibly have used the word 'please' instead of the (much longer) 'immediately', so the OP wouldn't be so irate now. But I wasn't aware of the Japanese forms of speach (thanks Helium for elucidating! - very interesting!) I regard the Japanese as the most polite ppl on Earth, so I was rather baffled by this guy's words.
English is my 3rd language (whatever the 2nd was I forgot ...) I never 'learnt' English properly & I have all the sympathy for non-English speakers.

I am an international fu.. oops, seller and buyer on ebay, yet somehow I didn't take the slightest offence in Vernissima's posts - maybe something is wrong with me...?

Back to topic: it still sounds a bit fishy to me, zero-fb ebayer's first buy is a $700 antique - and he calls it a "PRODUCT"?? (I mean, even with zero English...) What was the item BTW? I wouldn't ship it until the Money Order cleared.

MemberThread Starter

Didnt mean to cause drama, but for the record, I am japanese (wish I still remembered how to speak japanese in this case). No offense, but I've found through my experiences that political correctness often come from people that do not understand race relations. (i.e. the n word causes outrage mostly amongst white communities when african americans use it themselves.)

In college, I've had a white guy tell me its inappropriate that I use words like "japs" "jappy" when I am one myself. It's about ownership of slurs, it's my race, my heritage, my culture.

Member

since you are of Japanese decent you should be able to empathize with the seller. i bid on international auctions all of the time. if i want the product and its available overseas then why not. you repeatedly refered to the buyers race when addressing his actions and that's what came off as offensive. your last comment about the buyer needing to learn english really did not help your case either. because of your insensitive language you have brought the focus of your thread away from your actual issue and on to your character.